It is well known that properly training military, civilian, and law enforcement personnel in the correct use of a firearm requires special care and attention. Ideally, personnel should learn to aim the firearm at vital anatomical regions of a person when the person is posing a threat to the personnel or others. Such aim should cause the projectile to reach the vital anatomical regions in such as manner as to produce sufficient instantaneous trauma so that the person ceases to be a threat.
Known targets, e.g., solid target assemblies, are used to train personnel during accurate and prolonged engagement training drills, i.e., target practice. Engagement training drills occur at gun ranges, training camps, and the like, often utilizing a representative humanoid target. Known targets are designed to remain upright and generate an audible sound if hit by a projectile, e.g., a bullet, launched from the firearm. Other known targets generate an audible sound and drop out of the personnel's field-of-view (FOV) if hit by the projectile. A number of disadvantages are associated with these types of targets. For example, known targets that produce only an audible sound when the projectile hits the target do not provide the personnel with a visual indication of where the projectile actually hit the target. As such, the personnel is uncertain as to whether a vital anatomical region was hit by the projectile. Other known targets produce an audible sound and/or drop over out of the FOV, irrespective of where the projectile impacts the target's surface. More specifically, when a projectile hits the target surface, the target does not distinguish between non-vital anatomical regions, e.g., a region that represents a person's shoulder, and vital anatomical regions, e.g., a region that represents the person's chest. Said another way, the target produces the same audible sound and/or drops out of the personnel's FOV in exactly the same manner, irrespective of whether a vital or a non-vital anatomical region was hit by the projectile.
An additional problem presented by known targets is that the targets must be manually reset, which causes a loss in training time because a user must physically walk to the target to manually reset the target to the upright position. In addition, known targets do not provide an accurate way to predetermine the number of projectile hits that personnel must achieve within the vital anatomical region before the target drops over out of the FOV.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.